Trying to ‘Master’ the Masters Degree

Its coming up to a month since I made the move to Nottingham to study my Masters in Msc Multimedia Engineering at Nottingham Trent University and it sure has been one busy month.

I’m living back in halls of residence but they’ve allocated me with 8 other first year freshers. A postgraduate student with a bunch of freshers? Not the most ideal of set ups and I did have my worries to start of with. But within the month I feel like we have all meshed really well, they understand I’m not into the whole clubbing scene anymore and I understand that they are fresh out of home and free for the first time in 18 years. Mutual understanding is key to any living arrangement and thankfully my flat mates are a decent bunch!

The course itself is proving very interesting and the demand at Masters level is a lot more then at my undergraduate level when I studied ICT at De Montfort University. I have 4 deadlines all due in by the end of November and very little contact time with my lecturers. But that’s the thing with a Masters. It really is independent learning. You just have to make sure to be able to keep up. At the moment I can say that I am coping well. I am forever tired and haven’t enjoyed a lie In since moving to Nottingham but I knew what I was getting myself in for so I can’t complain!

Another thing about the course is the dynamics of the class, which is drastically different from my undergraduate. At undergraduate I was in a class of 30 students, we all mingled and go along really well. Now compare this with my Masters class, which is made up of 7 people including me. 6 of which are international students who know very little English, which makes for one very VERY quiet classroom. This isn’t such a bad thing because it makes it easier to get my work done without distractions. I think everyone in my class has the same mindset; get the degree and go.

If I wasn’t busy enough I have also considered doing a PGCE next year to become a teacher. Yep, I can’t seem to leave the uni life alone can I?! Doing my Masters right now has opened my mind to the prospects of training to be a teacher. Whether I’d make a good one or not is left to be seen but its something I’m currently thinking a lot about but who knows?

For anyone in their final year of university thinking about doing a postgraduate degree make sure you know what you’re putting yourself in for. It is a lot of work in a short space of time. Put it this way, doing a masters is like cramming three years of an undergraduate degree into one very short year. Could you handle that?

So far I seem to be managing well thanks to the time management skills I developed during my undergraduate and I urge any of you to make sure you leave university with good time management skills. 24 hours in a day is just not enough whether you’re working or studying.

My end of term is on the 6th of December which is nice and early but at the same time it’s the day all my deadlines are in and in the start of the New Year we get stuck right back into Uni with some new modules for the course with even more work. Ask me again in February if I’m still managing this Masters degree!

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About the Author

Hey! I’m Yusuf. I’m a recent graduate in BSc Information & Communication Technology from DeMontfort University. As of Septemeber 2013 I will be studying my Masters in Multimedia Engineering at Nottingham Trent University. Though I’m studying in Technology, I do love to do some writing!

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